The present invention relates to an electronic-money collecting system which is used for electronically collecting a lost IC card (debit card) containing electronic money.
A system which allows an IC card for recording money data issued by a banking organization to be used as an electronic purse has been described in the article `Value Transfer System` in International Publication No. WO91/16691 (or Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-504643). Electronic purses, each implemented by an IC card (sometimes referred to as a debit card), make up an `electronic-purse` system in conjunction with an account management system for loading money into an electronic purse and for controlling the exact calculation of money transactions. The `electronic-purse` system electronically transfers money from a bank account into a memory in an IC card, treating the IC card like an `electronic purse`. In this case, since money (or strictly speaking, money data) stored in the IC card is in actuality neither a bill nor a coin, the term `electronic money` is used in order to distinguish the money stored in an IC card from a bill or a coin. Money can be transferred from one IC card to another IC card through an account management system. In such a transfer of money, it is not necessary for the user to confirm the transfer of money with a banking organization. As a result, the processing to transfer money can be carried out in the same way as transferring cash to another person. In addition, at a banking organization, electronic money can be transferred and drawn as in the case of a cash transaction.
At any rate, in many cases, transaction processing using an `electronic purse` implemented by an IC card can be carried out without the need for confirmation of money transfer by a banking organization. As a result, when an IC card is lost, the money stored in the IC card is also lost, and like ordinary money, it is impossible to recover the money stored in the lost IC card unless the IC card itself is found. In addition, even if the lost IC card is found by a third person, the amount of money stored therein is not visible, giving rise to a problem that the probability that the lost IC card will be returned to the owner or reported to the institution issuing the IC card or to the police is very low. Thus, there has been a problem that money stored in a lost electronic purse will never be recovered in comparison with cash.
In addition, even if the lost IC card is reported to the institution issuing the IC card, the institution needs to follow a procedure for finding the legitimate owner of the reported IC card and for returning the IC card to the owner or re-issuing a new IC card in answer to a request made by the owner of the lost IC card, giving rise to a problem that the burdens to be borne by the institution and the owner losing the IC card itself are heavy.